the Austrian chancellor furious with his minister who saved a key text for biodiversity

GREEN DEAL – A political act ” brave ” for some people, “unacceptable” for others. The Austrian Minister of the Environment, Léonore Gewessler, this Monday, June 17, changed the fate of the most important law for biodiversity in the European Green Deal: the law for the restoration of ecosystems. While Austria had officially planned to abstain during this vote, Léonore Gewessler finally gave the green light to the text, thus allowing its entry into force after months of blockage.

Furious with his environmentalist environment minister, conservative Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer immediately declared that “Austria will file an action for annulment before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)”, arguing that the vote of Minister Léonore Gewessler does not correspond “ at the will of the government” and is therefore judged “ illegal “. He finally insisted: “no one is above the law”.

A vote to change everything

The minister’s contrarian vote is all the more striking as it is the only one to have tipped the scales in favor of the text. Indeed, if the MEPs had validated the text in February after tough negotiations, in particular concerning agricultural ecosystems, the final green light from the Twenty-Seven was still missing.

The latter was to be voted on by environment ministers from at least 15 countries representing 65% of the EU population. This required majority still seemed difficult to achieve this Monday morning, when three countries, Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy, intended to vote against, and five other states, Belgium, Austria, Poland, Finland and Hungary, planned to abstain.

This was without counting the unexpected political gesture of Léonore Gewessler, who finally declared: “my conscience tells me unequivocally that when the happiness of future generations is at stake, courageous decisions are necessary”. According to the minister, “ no government or party can ignore the interests of environmental protection and nature conservation”.

A “historic” victory that delights NGOs

With Austria, the text finally received the support of 20 out of 27 states, including France, and was definitively adopted. The Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu immediately welcomed a vote allowing “ preserve for future generations the services provided by ecosystems to guarantee our means of production and our resilience”.

The entry into force of this text was also welcomed by environmental protection associations. The NGO WWF, committed to preserving biodiversity, described this moment as “ historic victory ». The legislation “ will help strengthen the resilience of the seas, the largest reservoir of carbon, by tackling destructive fishing”backwards from “ anti-environmental speech » having marked the European campaign, also rejoices Nicolas Fournier, from the NGO Oceana, dedicated to ocean conservation.

The text now obliges EU Member States to introduce ecosystem recovery measures on 20% of land and marine spaces by 2030, and to restore 30% of habitats (wetlands, forests, etc.) bad condition. Concretely, this may consist of replanting hedges between fields, recreating wetlands, making way for meadows or even limiting industrial fishing in certain areas.

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